OUR  NEXT  DUTY 


TO  THE  INDIANS. 


BY 

JAMKS  K.  RHOADS. 


PlIILADELTHIA: 

INDIAN  RIGHTS  ASSOCIATION, 

No.  1316  P'lLBERT  Street. 

1887. 


Indian  Rights  Association, 

Office,  No.  1316  Filbert  Street, 

. Philadelphia,  Pa. 

OUR  NEXT  DUTY  TO  THE  INDIANS. 

The  passage  of  the  bill  giving  lands  in  severalty  to  Indians 
has  placed  upon  those  who  have  advocated  it,  upon  the  people 
of  the  United  States,  and  especially  upon  the  Executive  Depart- 
ment of  the  Government,  a new  responsibility.  Everything 
that  a wise  benevolence  can  devise  to  adapt  the  Indians  to  the 
changed  conditions  in  which  they  are  placed  should  be  carried 
out*with  vigor.  Jn  looking,  then,  to  the  immediate  future,  it  will 
appear  that  the  work  to  be  done  is  chiefly  one  of  administra- 
tion. Under  the  new  law,  Indian  agents  will  have,  in  many 
instances,  in  addition  to  their  present  onerous  duties,  that  of 
supervising  the  allotment  of  lands,  and  of  seeing  that  the  allot- 
tees are  prepared  for  the  time  when  the  land  will  be  theirs  with- 
out restriction,  to  be  held  for  use  or  parted  with  for  trifles. 

Special  agents  will  also, have  to  be  appointed  to  execute  the 
provisions  of  this  bill.  Hence  the  importance  of  right  appoint- 
ments in  the  Indian  service,  is,  if  possible,  more  grave  than  ever, 
and  these  appointments  should  be  absolutely  taken  away  from 
the  old  system  that  has  proved  so  defective,  and  be  made  in 
conformity  with  the  rules  of  civil  service  reform.  Men  of  prac- 
tical ability,  of  business  training,  and  of  conscientious  upright- 
ness, should  be  chosen.  Whenever  those  uniting  these  qualities 
with  experience  in  Indian  affairs  can  be  found  they  should  be 
preferred  for  appointment,  or,  if  in  the  service,  they  should  be 
retained. 

The  removal  of  experienced  and  successful  officers  from  any 
position  in  this  department  to  make  room  for  political  a.spirants, 
or  the  personal  friends  of  such  aspirants,  is  a folly  and  scandal 
that  should  be  promptly  abandoned  by  the  nation. 

In  all  the  agencies,  except,  possibly,  a very  few  of  the  smaller 
ones,  the  agent  should  have  one  or  more  thoroughly  competent 
clerks,  who  can  relieve  him  from  the  detail  of  accounts  and  the 
writing  of  business  letters,  so  that  he  can  give  his  energies  to 


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the  supervision  of  the  varied  interests  intrusted  to  him.  In  every 
case  the  clerk  should  be  one  upon  whom  the’  agent  can  rely  as 
a faithful  aid  in  his  endeavors  to  advance  the  welfare  of  the 
Indians  of  the  agency. 

A system  of  promotion  from  lower  to  more  important  stations 
in  the  service  should  be  adopted,  and  whenever  men  who  have 
gained  experience  are  qualified,  they  should  be  advanced  to  fill 
its  higher  offices. 

Industries. — Farming,  herding,  transporting  supplies  or  other 
industries  in  which  Indians  are  now  engaged  upon  their  reserves 
should  be  fostered  vigorously,  and  the  pressure  of  necessity 
should  be  applied  by  the  gradual  withdrawal  of  rations,  when- 
ever it  can  be  done  without  positive  harm,  to  enlist  them  in 
these  employments.  Besides  those  now  in  operation,  dlher 
forms  of  productive  industry  might  be  developed.  Upon  some 
reserves,  supplies  of  salt,  or  of  other  mineral  products,  exist, 
and  could  probably  be  made  to  contribute  to  the  good  of  the 
Indians,  replacing  indolence  by  labor  and  dependence  by 
self-support. 

Surely  the  Indians  could  care  for  cattle  as  well  as  for  ponies, 
and  ought,  in  many  instances,  to  use  their  vast  pasture  lands  for 
grazing  to  a far  greater  extent  than  at  present.  Tact  and  push 
could  bring  this  about.  The  young  people  trained  in  the  schools 
should  be  encouraged  to  form  little  colonies  upon  the  best  parts 
of  reservations,  and  should  be  assisted  in  making  houses  for 
themselves,  as  Captain  Lee  is  now  doing  for  the  Cheyennes  and 
Arapahoes  in  the  Seeger  colony.  The  Indian  police  should  be 
required  to  guard  the  premises  of  such  settled  Indians  from  the 
interference  of  rude  fellows  who  hate  to  see  civilization  coming 
in,  and  wish  to  remain  savages. 

Many  Indians  should  be  permanently  settled  in  white  commu- 
nities, as  farm  hands  or  in  other  employments. 

Defense  of  Indian  Rights. — The  power  of  the  Govern- 
ment should  be  used  with  prompt  decision  to  defend  the  rights 
of  the  Mission  Indians,  and  of  all  others  now  assailed  by  unjust 
men.  There  can  be  no  excuse  for  any  administration  that  per- 
mits cruel  injustice  against  the  defenseless  to  go  unchecked.  It 
makes  the  whole  nation  a sharer  in  these  crimes. 

The  agents  should  be  enabled  to  perfect  their  police  forces, 


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and  to  secure  the  protection  of  all  Indian  rights  before  the 
courts  of  the  United  States,  or  of  the  States  and  Territories. 

To  be  subject  to  laws  and  courts  will  be  but  a punishment  to 
Indians,  unless  the  Government  sees  to  it  that  the  courts  defend 
them  as  faithfully  as  they  do  the  white  citizen. 

Education. — There  should  be  a system  of  education  in  work, 
letters,  manners,  morals  and  religion  that  would  aim  to  embrace 
the  whole  Indian  population.  The  gravest  part  of  our  present 
duty  to  Indians  is  to  bring  about  in  each  of  them  that  change  of 
character  and  conduct  which  shall  conform  them  to  the  type  of 
good  white  citizens,  and  fit  them  to  live  under  the  new  condi- 
tions that  now  surround  them  and  upon  which  they  enter  under 
the  law  of  lands  in  severalty.  As  rapidly  as  possible  all  thought 
that  they  are  Indians  should  be  laid  aside,  and  they  should  be 
regarded  simply  as  our  countrymen.  For  the  adults  there  should 
be,  as  now,  farmers  and  mechanics  to  lead  them  in  work  ; and 
all  the  moral  compulsion  possible  should  be  used  to  make  them 
work.  Indolence  gives  sway  to  the  animal  part  of  human  nature  : 
it  is  the  parent  of  vice,  degradation  and  meanness,  for  Indians  as 
truly  as  for  white  people.  In  their  struggle  for  a livelihood,  tax- 
payers should  not  be  weighted  with  any  unnecessary  imposts  to 
sustain  Indians  who  might  labor  for  their  own  support. 

The  present  system  of  school  education  forms  a good  basis  for 
future  work.  It  should  not  be  ruthlessly  remodeled,  but  devel- 
oped and  perfected.  All  Indians  of  proper  age  should  be  placed 
under  school  discipline. 

The  schools  should  chiefly  aim  to  give  the  knowledge  needed 
at  once  by  the  Indians ; that  is,  of  numbers,  of  geography,  and 
of  the  use  of  the  English  language  by  speaking,  reading  and  writ- 
ing it.  A few  only  who  show  unusual  ability  should  receive  further 
instruction  to  fit  them  for  becoming  the  intellectual  leaders  of  their 
people.  But  these  should  be  especially  taught  to  work,  not  be 
lifted  even  temporarily  out  of  sympathy  with  their  people,  per- 
haps to  be  left  useless  or  depraved  at  last. 

The  Superintendent  of  Indian  Education  must  almost  inevi- 
tably find  it  necessary  to  spend  much  of  his  time  at  Washington, 
and  will  require  several  assistants,  who  should  each  have  super- 
vision of  a district,  visit  the  schools,  and,  by  cooperation  with 
the  agent,  do  all  that  may  be  done  by  advice  and  direction  to 


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bring  each  school  up  to  the  highest  state  of  efficiency.  These 
assistants  should,  whenever  practicable,  be  chosen  from  among 
the  successful  teachers  or  superintendents  of  Indian  schools. 
This  would  insure  that  they  would  know  what  was  practicable 
under  the  varying  conditions  of  schools  on  reservations  or  in  the 
States.  From  time  to  time,  the  Superintendent  could  visit  one 
of  these  districts  in  company  with  the  assistant  in  charge,  learn 
the  state  of  the  schools  and  perfect  plans  for  the  work. 

The  methods  should  not  be  uniform  ; this  would  stamp  out  the 
individuality  of  the  teacher.  The  books  should  not  be  the  same 
for  all  schools : this  would  lead  to  abuses.  But  the  assistants 
could  easily  see  that  good  methods  were  employed,  that  no  unfit 
books  were  continued  in  use,  and  that  those  specially  adapted 
were  not  omitted.  The  suggestion  of  Superintendent  Oberly 
that  the  superintendents  and  teachers  within  a given  district 
should  occasionally  meet  for  conference  and  perfecting  of 
methods  is  a very  good  one. 

Manual  training  should  be  given  by  all  the  boarding-schools. 
Work  should  be  made  the  mark  of  honor ; self-reliance  and 
self-support  the  end  of  ambition. 

Manners  should  receive  great  attention,  and  the  Indian’s 
native  self-respect  be  made  to  express  itself  in  a courteous  regard 
for  others,  notably  by  men  for  women.  Morals  must  be  sustained 
by  religion,  and  find  in  it  their  highest  motives.  It  is  easy  for  all 
men  to  be  animal ; hard  to  be  morally  pure  and  noble.  Even  more 
than  most  of  the  white  race  the  Indian  has  to  struggle  against 
hereditary  influences  in  the  endeavor  to  bring  his  lower  instincts 
under  the  supremacy  of  his  intellectual,  moral  and  religious 
nature.  Give  him,  then,  the  religion  of  the  Bible,  which  imparts 
the  best  moral  and  religious  instruction  to  be  found,  and  the 
highest  motives  conceivable.  All  Indian  schools  should  make 
instruction  in  it  a heartfelt  duty. 

All  the  kinds  of  schools  now  existing  are  needed.  On  some 
reserves  where  wild  Indians  are  scattered  over  wide  districts,  a 
large  number  of  day  schools,  giving,  perhaps,  a mid-day  meal, 
should  be  established  as  initiatory  to  the  boarding-schools.  The 
very  presence  of  a suitable  man  and  wife  resident  in  such  a 
school-house  near  a camp  or  village  of  Indians  has  a civilizing 
influence. 


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All  who  are  familiar  with  the  subject  recognize  the  high  im- 
portance of  boarding-schools  in  Indian  education. 

The  boarding-schools  should  seldom  accommodate  more  than 
one  hundred  pupils.  Beyond  this  the  personal  influence  of  a 
superintendent  is  likely  to  be  lost,  the  family  element  dies  out, 
and  an  institutional  condition  comes  in,  that  fails  to  develop  a 
truly  civilized  character. 

There  should  be,  as  now,  training  schools  off  the  reservations. 
This  insures  order  in  the  neighborhood  surrounding  the  school, 
steeps  it  in  the  atmosphere  of  white  civilization,  brings  the  races 
into  a contact  necessary  to  their  ultimate  commingling,  tends  to 
break  up  the  Indian  communities,  interests  the  whites  in  the 
future  of  the  race  and  creates  public  opinion  in  favor  of  Indian 
rights  and  culture. 

The  schools  conducted  under  the  auspices  of  the  churches 
should  be  fostered  whether  on  the  reserves  or  in  the  States.  The 
plainest  dictates  of  practical  statesmanship  would  lead  adminis- 
trations to  encourage  the  zeal  of  the  religious  organizations. 
They  supply  farms,  buildings  and  money  to  aid  the  Government 
in  its  half-accomplished  task,  while  they  interest  large  numbers 
of  citizens  in  the  cause  who  otherwise  would  simply  attend  to 
their  own  comfort  and  give  no  thought  to  the  Indians,  or  to  the 
great  difficulties  the  Government  finds  in  its  duty  to  educate 
every  Indian  youth.  Moreover,  the  Church  can  do  what  the 
Government  cannot  do — bring  the  Indians  under  the  power  of 
Christianity,  which,  through  eighteen  centuries,  has  proved  itself 
the  most  potent  force  in  civilization. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  legislation  has  largely  done  its  part, 
and  that  administration  of  Indian  affairs  now  claims  the  most 
serious  attention.  The  execution  of  the  laws  already  enacted 
will  demand  the  utmost  vigilance  of  the  friends  of  Indian  man- 
hood, womanhood  and  childhood,  and  all  that  is  possible  should 
be  done  to  aid  the  Government  in  its  high  task, — the  transform- 
ation of  all  Indians  into  Christian  American  citizens. 

James  E.  Rhoads. 


Bryn  Mawr,  4,  i,  1887. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016 


https://archive.org/details/ournextdutytoindOOrhoa 


Brldfriton. 

AUG  i€ 


LIST  OF  OFFICERS  FOR  THE  YEAR  1887. 


PRESIDENT. 

DR.  JAMES  E.  RHOADS. 

VICE-PRESIDENT, 

CLEMENT  M.  BIDDLE. 

TREASURER, 

ROBERT  FRAZER. 

CORRESPONDING  SECRETARY 

HERBERT  WELSH. 


RECORDING  SECRETARY, 

A.  B.  WEIMER. 


EXECUl 

CLERfENT  M.  Biddle, 
William  O.  Butler, 

F.  Hazen  Cope, 

Richard  C.  Dale, 
William  Drayton, 
Robert  Frazer, 

W.  W.  P'razier,  Jr., 

Philip  C.  Garrett, 

Rev.  J.  Andrews  Harris,  D. 
Prof.  E.  J.  James, 

Rt.  Rev.  O 


COMMITTEE, 

J.  Topliff  Johnson, 

Ja.mes  MacAlister, 

WisTAR  Morris, 

Charles  E.  Pancoast, 
Henry  S.  Pancoast, 

■ J.  Rodman  Pall, 

Dr.  James  E.  Rhoads, 

Rev.  H.  L.  Wayland,  D.D., 
..  A.  B.  Weimer, 

Herbert  Welsh, 
i’hitaker,  D.D. 


